


wasted like all my potential

by rweoutofthewoods



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Affairs, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cheating, Childhood Trauma, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Dad Lance, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Kid Fic, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Military Keith, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Relationship(s), Single Parent Lance (Voltron), Takes place in Texas, Waiters & Waitresses, diner au, high school sweethearts, i titled another fic from a taylor swift song, sorry I only know how to write angst, teen mom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25698832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rweoutofthewoods/pseuds/rweoutofthewoods
Summary: Lance Mclain skipped town ten years ago leaving behind everything he'd ever known.He doesn't talk about why he left, but he's twenty-six and a single father working as a waiter at a diner. No one asks where he came from or what he left behind.Everyone he knows has something they don't want to be asked about, the past is the past after all.Except it never truly seems to stay that way, does it?--(aka: the estranged childhood friends, diner AU)
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 86





	1. the greatest loves of all-time are over now

**chapter one: the greatest loves of all-time are over now**

Lance had imagined a lot of things when he was younger. He was known for his big imagination and often spent his nights staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling and dreamed up stories of magic, aliens, and drama. He imagined growing up to be a celebrity, a scientist, a sports player, but most of all, he wanted to be a pilot.

But when he wasted away hours imagining things, he didn’t quite imagine this.

Lance was twenty minutes late for his shift and some stupid mom had almost hit him in the school drop-off line causing him to spill coffee all over his only clean work shirt.

It was already that kind of day and it’d barely even started.

“You’re late!” Nyma called as the bell jingled announcing his arrival.

Lance stuck up his middle finger in response as he passed her. He dropped his stuff in the back and tied on his apron in record time. He’d only just clocked in as his boss appeared.

“What are you standing around for Lance?” Anderson asked, “Go help Nyma open.”

“Yeah, I was just about to do that,” Lance mumbled adjusting his apron and quickly joining Nyma on the floor.

“Oooh, you got scolded.” She laughed as Lance grabbed the sanitizer and set to work wiping down the tables as Nyma took down the chairs.

Lance glared at her in response “right, like you don’t get it from Anderson every day.”

“Okay, that’s a personal attack.” She crossed her arms and Lance rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be a bitch,”

“But Lance, you know that’s my default setting,” she said dryly and Lance couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I know,”

“So why were you so late today? Usually, _I’m_ the late one.”

Lance groaned “one of the moms lost her mind in the drop-off line today and nearly hit me. She then proceeded to yell at me for fifteen minutes like it was somehow my fault! One of the teachers actually had to come over and tell her to go.”

“Ugh,” Nyma rolled her eyes “I fucking hate moms.”

“You are a mom,” Lance pointed out.

“Yeah, but I’m a cool mom,”

Lance snorted and she hit him on the shoulder lightly “Don’t laugh it’s true.”

“Only because you’re young,”

“Are you teen-mom-shaming me?” Nyma asked dramatically holding a hand to her chest “Because I feel the need to point out that you are twenty-six with a ten-year-old so you do not get to talk.”

“Of course, I can’t talk, it’s only a fact. Once you’re thirty you won’t be cool anymore.”

“That’s bold of you Mclain, I will always be cool.”

“You’ll also be fired if we’re not ready to open by nine!” Anderson called from across the room and Nyma quickly turned back to the chairs which she was supposed to be setting up.

\--

“Hello, welcome to Sunset Diner, I’m Lance and I’ll be your waiter today. Can I get you guys started on some drinks?”

“Do do iced coffee?” A small woman with short hair asked leaning forward.

Like the rest of the group, the woman wore a brown Galaxy Garrison uniform. It wasn’t unusual to see officers in the diner. A year or two ago the Garrison had started some project and branched out further into Texas setting up a base not far away. The diner was the only place nearby that stayed open until midnight, so they got a lot of Garrison employees closer to closing. However, Lance normally didn’t work that late, so he rarely had to deal with them.

“Absolutely not, Pidge.” Another woman spoke up with a crisp accent. “I will not have you bouncing off the walls today, no caffeine for you.”

“Hey, you’re not the boss of me!” Pidge protested.

The woman simply raised her eyebrows.

“Okay I mean _technically_ you are my boss but—”

“How about we just go without the coffee today,” A large man cut in his voice gentle “drink all the coffee you want on your own time but we have to finish up those prototypes today and you need to be focused.”

“Fine,” Pidge agreed with a dramatic sigh “but only because Hunk’s right,” she said shooting a glare towards the other woman “not because you can boss me around in my personal life Allura.”

Allura just shrugged.

“Okay,” Hunk turned towards Lance who was still waiting patiently with his notepad out “sorry about that I think we’ll all do water.”

“Okay, so three waters then?”

“Oh five actually,” Hunk corrected “we’re waiting on two other people still.”

“Okay, great. I’ll have those waters right over for you.”

“Thank you!” Hunk said with a bright smile and Lance was a little surprised at his warmth. It wasn’t often that people took the time to treat the waitstaff in a genuinely kind way Lance thought as he went to get their drinks.

“Aw, I can’t believe you got a good table,” Nyma groaned as she joined Lance at the soda fountain. “Mine didn’t even say thank you and I could see the guy at yours smiling from across the room.”

“Well after I had to deal with the cheeseburger guy yesterday I deserve it.”

Nyma laughed “Oh god, that was priceless.” She shook her head “and your face when he asked you why his cheeseburger had cheese.”

Lance groaned “It was not funny! The guy ordered a fucking cheeseburger and then gave me a bad tip because it had cheese! If he didn’t want cheese, he should have just fucking ordered a burger.” Lance finished filling his water and stacked them up on his tray “I just hope these Garrison guys tip well, they looked like important officers.”

“Cross your fingers!” Nyma called as he turned to head back to the table with the drinks.

“Here are your waters,” Lance said as he approached the table, passing the drinks out quickly.

“Thank you,” The British woman—Allura, smiled.

“Of course, are you guys ready to order now, or did you want to wait on the rest of your group?”

“Uh, could you give us a little while longer.” Hunk said glancing towards the door, “they should be here soon.”

“Sure,” Lance nodded “I’ll be back shortly.”

\--

“Are you ready for me to take your orders?” Lance asked pulling a pen out of his apron.

“Yeah, we are thanks.” Hunk smiled.

Lance looked up but as he did, he completely forgot what he was going to say as all the air was sucked out of the room. Every word that had been drilled into him from ten years of working as a waiter was just gone. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do next, all he knew was that there were a pair of dark eyes looking at him.

He looked different than Lance remembered him. His hair was shorter, shoulders broader and there was a scar across his cheek.

“Lance?” He asked and suddenly Lance was back in the diner with the sound of the AC whirring in the background and the click of utensils on plates.

“Um,” Lance cleared his throat ignoring him and quickly looking down at his notepad “what can I get for you guys?”

“Lance,” He repeated but this time, less shocked and more insistent.

“Yes?” Lance said keeping his voice carefully polite.

“What are you doing here.”

“I work here, Keith.”

“Yeah, I gathered that much.” Keith glared.

Before Lance could even begin to deal with this unexpected encounter there was a hand on his arm.

“Lance,” Nyma said quietly “we just got a call from Nalda’s school. They said they need you to come in and pick her up, she’s sick. Anderson said to take over your tables so you can go.”

“Oh, god. Did they say how she was sick? I mean was she like passing out?”

“I don’t know, Anderson is the one who talked to them.” Nyma said, “Just go, I’ve got this.”

“You sure?”

“You covered my tables for me when Ryan got into a fight at school last month, I owe you.”

“Okay, I’ll be back.”

She shot him a thumbs up and turned to the table. As Lance retreated, he didn’t look back, he could feel Keith dark gaze following Lance as he left.

\--

“Who was that?” Shiro said once the blonde waitress had taken their order and disappeared.

When Keith had entered the diner, he had been thinking about whether or not his friends had ordered without them and wondering if Shiro would agree to split dessert today. Not about Lance Mclain, he hadn’t thought about Lance in a very long time.

Not until he was suddenly standing right there in front of Keith like something out of another life.

“Lance…” Keith said absentmindedly picking at the napkin in front of him. “he was a…friend. We grew up together.”

“Oh, so did you guys lose touch? You’ve never mentioned him before.” Shiro said in the careful way he always did whenever he approached a topic relating to Keith’s past.

“No, he dropped out of school two months before graduation and skipped town. I never heard from him again. I don’t think anyone has, not even his family. It was the talk of the town for months, but I don’t know, I haven’t been back there in a while.”

“He didn’t look happy to see you,” Pidge noted.

“No, I wouldn’t think he would be,” Keith said but he didn’t elaborate, and Hunk seemed to take this as a sign to change the topic.

\--

Until they were seventeen Keith had never lived in a world without Lance.

Their parents had grown up together, gone off to school together, and then come back to their small little town to settle down together. They bought houses side-by-side and raised their kids together, Keith was born only a month after Lance. 

It sounded like a cute little story if you left out the part where Keith’s mother died when he was only seven and his father became an alcoholic. Or the fact that Lance was the product of a summer fling his mom had with a man from Cuba who was only passing through. Oh yeah, and she was married at the time.

Lance’s mother always just acted like she hadn’t had an affair. Lance had called his mother’s husband his dad even though everyone knew he wasn’t really. His parents had worked it out and they were set on simply ignoring it. Which is what everyone did on the surface.

Except, Lance with his warm skin and dark hair stood out from his white parents and siblings. He was always the outsider in his family, and his so-called father had always resented Lance. He was a constant reminder of his mother’s mistake, the child she never even wanted.

Keith wondered sometimes if that was why Lance had left, disappearing so suddenly. If he’d only waited two months, he would have had at least a diploma to his name.

Mostly though, Keith tried not to wonder these days because he couldn’t think about his involvement in Lance leaving.

Keith wasn’t a kid anymore staying out late to avoid his drunk father, he didn’t live in an unforgiving little town. It’d been ten years, Keith was a pilot, a high-ranking Garrison officer. He was successful and his town was proud of him despite the delinquency of his youth.

Lance Mclain, drunk fathers, and a slow but steady spiral down, that was the past.


	2. running like water

Lance was rattled as he waited in the school office for them to bring Nalda to him. He tried to steady his shaking hands, his daughter didn’t need to see him like this. It’d only scare her.

“Papa!” his little girl came barrelling over while the nurse stood in the doorway.

“She should be fine,” the nurse said, “had to get her blood sugar up, just keep an eye on her.”

“Okay, thank you.” Lance nodded taking Nalda’s backpack from her.

“Are we going home?” She asked. Her eyes were bright and curious as always but he could tell Nalda was tired, the day had taken its toll.

“Yup, I checked you out at the office, let’s go home.”

“Okay,” She took his hand as they headed down the empty school hall. “can we go to the beach today?”

“No, Nalda, you know we can’t. I don’t want to use that gas I need this tank to last the rest of the week.”

“Fine,” she sighed and it was a testament to how much her fainting spell had tired her out that she didn’t push it anymore.

“We’ll do the beach soon,” Lance promised, it should get busier around town once it starts warming up, then I’ll make better tips so we can splurge a little okay?”

“Okay,” Nalda smiled “I’m excited.”

Lance let go of her hand to ruffle his daughter's hair “Me too, kiddo.”

\--

As soon as Lance unlocked the door to their apartment Nalda shedded her school stuff and headed to her room to nap. He knew this meant that she’d be up again close to dinner full of energy and raring to go but that was a problem for Rosa.

“Hey,” Lance knocked gently on the doorframe to Nalda’s room after he’d finished putting her school stuff away.

“yeah?” She asked sleepily turning over to face him.

A part of Lance melted at seeing the half-asleep look on her face and the way her dark curls stuck up in places from being squashed against her pillow. Sometimes he looked at her and in his head he still saw his little baby with her shock of black hair and those blue eyes.

But she wasn’t a baby, Lance knew that, he did. Even though Nalda accused him of babying her often.

Her eyes weren’t blue anymore, her hair wasn’t just a tuft on the top of her head. She was “a whole decade old!” as she often felt the need to remind him. Time was funny though because it felt like yesterday that she was learning to crawl.

“I need to go back to work,” He told her carefully, he knew she wouldn’t be happy about that.

Predictably, she frowned “Can’t you stay home?”

“No, I’m sorry _Mija_ ,” Lance shook his head “but you know the more I work the closer we get to our beach day.”

She sighed “I know, but I wanted you to stay.”

“I can’t, Nalda. But Rosa is gonna come over and keep an eye on you. You can sleep and when you’re feeling better I’ve given her permission to let you watch some movies.”

“Can we make cookies?” She asked hopefully.

“As long as it’s okay with Rosa, and as long as they’re safe for you to eat.”

“I know, I know I’ll stick to my diet.” She rolled her eyes sounding way too much like a teenager for Lance’s liking.

“Okay, good.” He moved forward giving her a quick kiss on the forehead “I’ll be back for a late dinner okay? Go light on the cookie making, don’t wanna use up the rest of our groceries. No shopping until Sunday.” He reminded her.

“I know, bye Papa, I love you.”

“I love you too, _Mija_.”

\--

As Lance pulled into the parking lot at work he tried not to stress about how much gas he’d used today, it was double the usual amount.

When Nalda was little he tried not to talk money around her or let her know that sometimes they struggled but as she got older Lance realized that the only way for them to stay fed and well was to have strict rules. He felt bad about it. Nalda rarely ever got new clothes or splurged on. Some kids at her school got new clothes every season and video game consoles and TVs for Christmas. Nalda never did, Lance simply couldn’t afford it and he often felt terrible about that. At the end of the day he always just tried to remember that they had a roof over their head, a car, and these days it was rare they went hungry.

Lance’s rules might have sounded too strict; only a certain amount of gas a week, every shopping trip was planned weekly with one bigger budget trip every other week and then a much smaller budget trip in-between to get any essentials they urgently needed like bread or toilet paper. Lance admitted, it wasn’t the most comfortable way to live but it kept rent paid and food on the table.

Things had gotten tighter since Nalda’s diagnosis last year, insulin was insanely expensive but that was one thing Lance was determined to keep her unaware of. He did what he had to.

“How’s Nalda?” Nyma asked as Lance clocked back in.

“She’s fine, just a little wiped.”

“I’m glad she’s okay. I took care of your tables everything here is fine.”

“Thanks, Nym, I owe you.”

“Hell yeah, you do.” She joked.

And if Lance’s eyes strayed to the now empty table where Keith had sat earlier, well nobody need mention that.

\--

When Lance had first started working at Sunset Diner the endless expanse of desert surrounding it had scared him a little. It seemed a lot bigger in the dark, the single road lit only by his headlights and the occasional other cars. It felt like another planet, even growing up in the south there was something foreign about it.

So when he saw the pickup truck stopped on the shoulder her felt sympathy for them, but thankfully there was another car stopped so he figured they were being helped out.

However, as he passed something seemed off about the scene. A figure was gesturing widely and they seemed upset.

Against his better judgment, Lance pulled over. As he approached them he heard a man speaking agitatedly in rapid Spanish.

“Hey, you need help?” Lance asked shielding his eyes against the brightness of the truck's headlights.

_“¿hablas español?”_ the man asked desperately.

“ _Si,”_

_“¡Gracias a Dios!”_ He proclaimed and quickly explained the situation, he’s seen this group stalled on the road and had been trying to help them but he couldn’t understand them and was getting frustrated at the ordeal.

Lance quickly agreed to translate and the man told Lance that the group was in the back of the truck, he thought they were getting the jumper cables but with the language barrier, he was unsure.

“Hey!” Lance called out. “I speak English I can help y’all out.”

A tall man appeared around the side of the truck “Oh, thank you! I’m sorry language barriers can be rough sometimes.”

“Oh it’s no problem,” Lance shrugged “I was…” He trailed off as the man came into the light and Lance recognized him as one of the officers who’d been in the diner that morning.

“Oh,” he said surprised “you’re that waiter from Sunset Diner right?” He asked recognizing Lance at the same time.

“Yeah, that’s me,”

“Oh hey waiter guy!” another man who Lance was pretty sure was Hunk said as he appeared with the other small officer Pidge and Keith. The British one Allura was absent.

“Hey, small world.” Lance chuckled weakly. “what’s going on here exactly?” He purposely didn’t look anywhere near Keith this time.

“Our truck broke down, this nice man was trying to help, but we don’t speak Spanish and he doesn’t speak English so we were kind of just confusing each other.” Hunk said with a shrug.

“You guys got jumper cables?” Lance asked.

“Um… we thought we did but apparently not,” Pidge admitted. “Please tell me you do?” She asked hopefully.

“Uh… I do, at home.”

“Really? Who doesn’t keep jumper cables in their car?”

“You apparently.” Lance pointed out.

She frowned “Okay, fair.”

“Maybe the nice man does,” Hunk said, “I tried to ask but you know, all I know how to say in Spanish is that I don’t speak Spanish so we didn’t get far.”

“Oh, I’ll ask.”

“He doesn’t speak English,” Keith said exasperatedly speaking for the first time since Lance had shown up.

Lance rolled his eyes “I know, we established that. I’m not an idiot.”

He turned and called over to the man in Spanish. He lit up excitedly at Lance’s question.

“ _Si, si!”_ The man went to his car and returned a moment later proudly holding the cables.

Twenty minutes later the officers' truck was back up and running and Lance was translating the group's profuse gratitude to the man and he was on his way.

“Thank you, Lance,” The officer (whose name Lance learned was Shiro) said warmly.

“It’s no trouble, this stretch of the desert used to creep me out, I’d never want to leave anyone trapped out here.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit scary. You lived around here for a long time?”

“For about seven years,” Lance shrugged.

“Do you like it? We haven’t been stationed here that long and it’s been all work, so I don’t really know the area.”

“I mean, it is what it is. I don’t dislike it, the beach isn’t super far from here which is pretty cool, my daughter absolutely loves it there.”

“Is the beach pretty clean?” Hunk asked hopefully “I’ve really wanted to check it out there.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty good. I mean, there’s a more expensive area near the summer homes and such, I’ve heard that’s nicer but I’ve never been over there.”

“We’ll have to check it out,” Hunk said excitedly.

“Thank you again, Lance, we owe you big time,” Shiro said.

“No, no don’t worry about it.”

“No, really we owe you. I have an idea to repay you. It’s fine if you say no, I get it I’m a stranger, but how about I give you my number, and if you ever need someone to jumpstart your car or give you a ride you can call me?”

“Well, I mean you don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” Shiro said earnestly.

“I- okay,” Lance shrugged.

Shiro rattled off his number and they parted ways, Lance successfully avoiding any further interactions with Keith.

Lance knew full well he’d never take Shiro up on his offer, but it was kind anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh guys I'm still alive! Thank you to everyone that was asking about me and checking in. It really warmed my heart to know that people even noticed I was gone? 
> 
> Lmao I'm sorry I told some people I'd post an update in like two weeks from the first chapter... and now it's been like two months. I started college and I've been in recovery for an eating disorder so life has been somewhat rough. But I'm reviving this fic for nanowrimo!! 
> 
> (Edit: I did not in fact revive this for nano, it’s ok u can tell me to fuck myself)
> 
> Also I'm on tumblr now, idk how to link it exactly but you can come talk to me there or put in fic requests, anything at all!
> 
> https://rweoutofthewoods.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, Taylor Swift released an album and suddenly I'm back with a new fic inspired by it. Y'all aren't ready for this shit. 
> 
> (this may or may not be my third fic titled from a Taylor Swift song I don't wanna talk ab it)


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